India Police Hunt Former Politician After Acid Attack on Journalist

Police in a small town in Maharashtra say they are searching for a former Congress politician they think is linked to an alleged acid attack on a journalist and his family last week.

Police said Syed Ali Syed Hassan, the Congress party president of Purna from 2009 to July 2010, planned the attack on Dinesh Chaudhari because of his reports on the illegal trade in “gutka,” or chewing tobacco.

Mr. Hassan is under investigation for trading gutka, according to Sandeep Patil, the superintendent of police in Maharashtra’s Parbhani district, where the alleged acid attack took place. “The railway police registered a case against him three months back for a consignment of gutka that was being transported,” Mr. Patil said. He didn’t elaborate.

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A.G. Soni, a lawyer for Mr. Hassan, said he isn’t aware of any connection between his client and the gutka trade.

Mr. Chaudhari, who writes for two local Marathi newspapers, was at home in Purna when the attack took place at around 11.30 p.m. on March 12, a police officer said. The officer said two men threw acid from a mug-like container at Mr. Chaudhari, some of which hit his wife Aruna and daughter Rashmi, who were standing near the door of the home.

Mr. Chaudhari told India Real Time that he and his wife suffered major burns and his wife will undergo surgery. They returned home Saturday, where they are under police protection at night. Mr. Chaudhari said they didn’t want to stay in the hospital because it was too expensive.

Prakash Singh/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A man mixed chewing tobacco on the eve of World Tobacco day in New Delhi, May 30, 2004.

Mr. Patil, the superintendent in Parbhani district, said five people have been arrested in connection with the attack, including the two who allegedly threw acid at Mr. Chaudhari. All five have been arrested on charges including attempted murder, causing harm by dangerous weapons and criminal conspiracy, Mr. Patil said.

The names of the accused are Syed Habib Syed Hassan, Syed Jameel Syed Younus, Munja Vishwanath Dargu, Anil Banduppu Kutkule and Pandit Valkar, Mr. Patil said. On Wednesday, a judge ordered the five men should remain in judicial custody until April 1.

Shaik Zaheed, the lawyer for all five men, said they have no connection with the alleged acid attack. He added that he will ask the court to bail all five on Thursday.

Mr. Patil said Syed Habib Syed Hassan is the brother of former Congress politician Syed Ali Syed Hassan, and Syed Jameel Syed Younus is the former politician’s nephew.

The head of the Congress party in Parbhani district said Mr. Hassan was asked to leave the party in 2010 after it ruled that he fielded an opposition candidate in local elections. Police say Mr. Hassan still uses the party’s name on his banners in the city. The Congress party leads the United Progressive Alliance, India’s ruling coalition.

Mr. Soni, the lawyer for Mr. Hassan, said he has applied for anticipatory bail in Parbhani court on behalf of his client, who is being sought by police. Mr. Soni said he doesn’t know Mr. Hassan’s location.

He said Mr. Hassan wasn’t in Purna when the attack allegedly took place, and was not involved in its planning.

Mr. Patil said Mr. Chaudhari told police he had been threatened by Mr. Hassan in the month before the alleged attack. He didn’t ask for police protection at that time, Mr. Patil said.

Narayan Karanjkar, the editor of Marathi newspaper Solapur Tarun Bharat, said Mr. Chaudhari the journalist had recently tipped off police about a consignment of gutka entering the state. The chewing tobacco was banned last year on health grounds.

“It is very difficult to write about illegal gutka, or liquor,” Mr. Karanjkar said.

Gutka is extremely popular in India, where nearly one million die every year due to tobacco use, including cigarettes and chewing tobacco, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey India. More than a quarter of adults use smokeless products such as gutka and khaini, GATS says.

Health care experts also estimate around five million children in India are addicted to tobacco. They too mostly consume chewing tobacco, which comes in colored sachets and costs only around five rupees.

Nearly 300 local journalists Saturday gave a letter to the administrative head of Maharashtra’s Parbhani district asking for an investigation into last week’s attack and justice for the journalist, Mr. Karanjkar said.

Geeta Seshu, who monitors violations of free speech in India for thehoot.org, said attacks on journalists are becoming “so much more vicious” and that their families are being targeted more often. “People feel that they can get away with this.”

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized India for not doing enough to protect journalists, particularly in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and in the country’s northeast last year.

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